Assessment Drives, Snakes, Elephant rides and Kruger

Ok so it has been a while since my last update-where does the time go????

The last two weeks of semester was spent madly trying to study and get ready for my assessment drive, where we had to take a 3 hour game drive, trying to cover all the topics that we have learn over the course.

Over the two week period we also got to go on a lot of other peoples assessment drives, which were good as you got to see how other people did their drives, and got to eat their really good food on the drinks break, but after doing 5 drives of the same route you also got to know all the trees things that they would stop at.

My drive was on the Thrusday night of the first week, which convienently also happened to be in the middle of the pouring rain. Trying to do a game drive for 3.5 hours, in the rain, with people who really didnt want to be there, and not seeing any animals was very difficult, but the result was I passed!!!

The Friday was then spent on an overnight stay at GVI, for an interview on placement, where I was subsequently offered a placement and where I will now be spending the next 7 months.

The second week was then spent on more game drive assessments and after the final ones, a few days relaxation, before we started our week off.

The first weekend of our week off was spent up at a fellow students house, having a farewell party, and then I headed back to camp and as I had hired a car with Lukas.

Monday was spent relaxing at camp, then Tuesday Lukas and I headed off to a snake handling course together. This was so much fun, we got to handle several very venomous snakes (Snouted Cobra, Mozamique Spitting Cobra, Boomslang, Black Mumba) as well as a couple of Rock Pythons, one of which was 4m long! The most scary was the python as it went for you while the others tryed to move out of your way.

Wednesday Lukas and I headed off to do an Elephant Back Safari, which was also fantastic, it was great to see the bush from another prospective. While it wasnt very long only about an hour or so, it was peaceful and lovely to be out in the bush in a different way.

Thursday we headed down to Kruger for the day, leaving camp at 2.30am, and getting to the gates as they opened at 5.30, driving round all day (and seeing some really amazing things, Hyena cubs, Lion cubs, Impala babies, a Leopard in a tree with a kill, Elephant babies) and not getting home until about 9.30pm.

The last couple of days have been spent relaxing but it is back to the books now to study for our last exam which is next Friday, and then we head out on placements, and the next stage of the adventure begins.

Hyena cub getting up close and personal

Lion cub

FGASA exam

This week saw us sit our final FGASA (Field Guides Association of Southern Africa) exam, the first of 3 exams we have spent the course aiming towards.

The week was spend doing a lot of study, Monday was totally study, Wednesday afternoon was study, and Thursday was totally spend doing study.

The upside was that we did get to go to Kruger for a day trip this week Team A on Monday and us on Tuesday. While we didnt actually see a huge amount (we did see a herd of over 500 Buffalo which was amazing siting in the middle of them, and three Buffalo sorting out their territorial differences) it was great to get out of the camp for a day during the stress of the looming exam.

Wednesday morning we had an info session on what to expect on the exam, and anything else we had questions on. The reast of the day was then spend madly studying for the exam on Friday, with the result being a late rather late night.

Thursday was spent again studying another lond day and late night, with an equally early morning on the Friday for a bit of last minute revision before the test began. I felt that I had done well enough to pass, and we left the tests in the hands of our trainers busily marking them as we all headed into town to head back to the traffic centre and the next step in our licence and PDP application-pick up the result from our fingerprints from one room, walk to the counter 10 meters away and hand the form back in-all in all took about 2 hours, actually quite quick. After lunch in town we headed back to camp and got the all important results of the exam. I was pleasently surprised to find that not only did I pass very well, but also got the highest mark on the course by half at mark at 96%

Satuday I decided to head out on a game drive in the morning with the result that I again didnt get a lot of sleep as it involved an early morning, and then we headed up to Mahlahla for dinner and some relaxing. Sunday was spent doing as little as possible before the study again resumes on Monday for my assessment drive on Thursday, the second of our three major tests

Dragonfly
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Buffalo

Buffalo

Ground Hornbill

Camp at night

Vultures